Abstract: Microservices are the latest, and probably the most popular, technology to realize the well-known service-oriented architecture (SOA). They have been widely applied in many important industrial applications, and have also attracted increasing attentions in academia. In order to aid the effective development of high quality microservices, in this study, we present a systematic review of the microservices literature, focusing on the various software engineering activities in the development of microservices. Specifically, we collect and analyze the currently available methods, tools and practices for the requirements analysis, design and implementation, testing, and refactoring for Microservices. We also discuss the issues and opportunities in future researches of this field.

Key words: microservice, service-oriented architecture, software development, system design, refactor